Most of the mammalian diversity is known only from fossils, and only a few of these fossils are well preserved or abundant. This undersampling poses serious problems for understanding mammalian ...

Alca (Aves, Alcidae) has a comparatively rich fossil record with respect to other Charadriiformes, consisting of thousands of specimens. Despite the abundance of fossil material, species richness in ...

Using an unusually well-preserved subfossil jawbone, a team of researchers has sequenced for the first time the nuclear genome of the koala lemur (Megaladapis edwardsi), one of the largest of the 17 ...

Researchers have tested the biting efficiency of Smilodon, an extinct species of carnivore close to the extant felines. Using high-precision 3D scans and simulation methods, the team has just revealed ...

Evolution has resulted in the development of both herbivores and carnivores—but how? What type of food did extinct ...

There are 64 species of extant gliding mammals that are currently recognized, which are divided into six different families. These comprise eight species of gliding marsupials that live within ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Extinct species are every bit as interesting as those that ...